


Beck and call

by ToxicPineapple



Series: Amasai Week 2021 [1]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Amasai Week, Amasai Week 2021, Concussions, Conversations, Developing Relationship, Head Injury, Injured Character, Light Angst, M/M, Saimami Week, Saimami week 2021, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-23 13:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30056268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicPineapple/pseuds/ToxicPineapple
Summary: As Saihara enters the library, he stops short, his breath catching in his throat. What happens next, Saihara reasons later on, only takes a couple of moments; but to Saihara, time seems to slow down, everything from his own heartbeat to the scene playing out before him.Amami is standing by the far bookcase, where Akamatsu set up that last camera, his gaze trained on the ground. It’s hard to tell from this distance, but Saihara thinks his eyebrows are knitted together in confusion. Behind him, the bookshelf is open, and so is the hidden door. Standing in front of it, poised to attack, her arms lifted above her head and a silver shot put ball gleaming from her hands, is Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer, and one of Saihara’s fellow captives.He doesn’t have any time to draw conclusions from this, but what Saihara does find the time to do is to call, “Amami-kun, look out!” his heart leaping into his throat.---Saihara doesn't stop to talk to Chabashira and Momota outside the library, and saves a life.---Amasai week day one: Talentswap/Canon Divergence
Relationships: Amami Rantaro/Saihara Shuichi
Series: Amasai Week 2021 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2212905
Comments: 4
Kudos: 64
Collections: Quality Fics





	Beck and call

**Author's Note:**

> written for day one of amasai week! the prompt i used was "canon divergence"!

When the sensor starts going off in Saihara’s hand, he doesn’t give Akamatsu even a moment to react, pushing open the door to the classroom and taking the stairs two at a time, his heart racing in his chest.

He’s run like this a couple times before, only ever on cases. It sort of makes his lungs ache, where they were already a bit sore with the binder around his chest, but it’s almost an exhilarating feeling, his throat tight, his stomach full of butterflies. This could be it. They could catch the mastermind. They could all go  _ home. _

In the basement, Saihara runs into Momota and Chabashira, and he knows that he should stop and talk with them, but ah-- the mastermind is in the library  _ right this moment.  _ Saihara can’t waste a second with idle chit-chat. What if the mastermind slips back into the secret room while Saihara is distracted? What if something goes wrong with the pictures? Saihara doesn’t want to risk it, and he can hear Akamatsu’s footsteps thudding down the stairs behind him, so he steels his shoulders and pushes past Momota, gripping the brim of his hat and muttering a quick apology before shoving the library door open with his shoulder.

As Saihara enters the library, he stops short, his breath catching in his throat. What happens next, Saihara reasons later on, only takes a couple of moments; but to Saihara, time seems to slow down, everything from his own heartbeat to the scene playing out before him.

Amami is standing by the far bookcase, where Akamatsu set up that last camera, his gaze trained on the ground. It’s hard to tell from this distance, but Saihara thinks his eyebrows are knitted together in confusion. Behind him, the bookshelf is open, and so is the hidden door. Standing in front of it, poised to attack, her arms lifted above her head and a silver shot put ball gleaming from her hands, is Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer, and one of Saihara’s fellow captives.

He doesn’t have any time to draw conclusions from this, but what Saihara  _ does  _ find the time to do is to call, “Amami-kun, look out!” his heart leaping into his throat.

At that, Amami starts to turn, his green eyes wide and alarmed, but Saihara knows before he’s all the way around that he’s not going to make it in time, and Shirogane is closing in, an odd grimace on her face, and--

Saihara’s feet move of their own accord, and suddenly he’s in front of Amami, pushing him back with his own back, arms lifted to shield his head.

It’s not enough. There’s a sharp, overwhelming pain in his forehead, and Saihara hears Amami say something, panic seeping into his voice, but he can barely make out the words as he falls backwards, unconsciousness taking him before he’s hit the floor.

\---

When Saihara opens his eyes, it’s to a dull throb in his head, and to dimmed, yellow lights. Despite the fact that the lights aren’t particularly bright, he lets out a hiss, screwing his eyes shut and bringing up one of his hands to cover his face. That’s… painful. He can barely open his eyes again to take in his surroundings, which is… infuriating, because Saihara would really like to know.

He registers… the pain in his head. It’s a bit difficult to focus past, actually. There’s the slight weight of a blanket over the lower half of his body, he thinks, and though he’s still wearing his uniform, his shoes are off. His binder is on, though, and his ribs are already protesting with however long he’s been in it. It’d be a more immediate issue if his head didn’t hurt so damn much.

The sheets of the bed that he’s lying on are… soft. Not unlike the sheets in the bedroom that he was assigned to, in the Ultimate Academy, but… they smell different, Saihara thinks. Unfamiliar, but pleasant, like evergreen trees and a faint whisper of incense. The scent relaxes him, and he breathes out, lowering his hand from his face. That’s alright.

Once Saihara has relaxed enough, he finds it in himself to focus on his other senses; namely, his hearing, because there are voices, somewhere off on his left. They sound fuzzy, warping in and out, like Saihara is listening to them from underwater, but… that must be whatever that pain is, in his head, making him feel all off balance and pained. He can barely distinguish the voices from each other, aside from the knowledge that one is a warm, rasping baritone, and the other a similarly warm, melodic mezzo soprano. They’re familiar, Saihara thinks, but he isn’t here enough to assign them to faces. Still, the sound of them isn’t all that alarming to him. He breathes another sigh and waits for a moment before opening his eyes again.

The light, dimmed as it is, isn’t as painful on this attempt, which is good, because Saihara relies on his eyesight for quite a lot of things, and it’s frustrating, not being able to see. He looks down at the blanket resting over his legs, and notes that it’s blue. Just like the one in his own room, and if Saihara isn’t mistaken, that must mean that he’s in a boy’s room. So many of the things at this academy are colour coded, it seems. He rests a hand by his side and slowly starts to ease himself into a seated position, groaning at the pain in his head with the movement. It’s especially difficult supporting his head without the pillows under him, but Saihara can manage, he thinks, he’s got to figure out where he is, stop being so damn disoriented and--

“Hey, easy, easy.” Suddenly, there’s a large, warm hand cradling Saihara’s lower back, and another on the back of his head, calloused fingers brushing against the nape of his neck. (Saihara shivers, his eyelids fluttering for a moment before he forces them to stay open.) “You took quite a hit there, y’know. Maybe you should lie back down.”

“A hit?” Saihara repeats. He recognises the voice as the lower one he heard before, but it isn’t until a pair of pale green eyes come into his field of vision that he attaches it to an owner. “A-Ah… Amami-kun, is this your bed?”

“You figured that out by yourself?” Amami lets out a low chuckle as he carefully eases Saihara back into the pillows. Saihara allows it, humming as Amami’s hand shifts from his back to his shoulders. The touch is nice. Amami is very gentle. “You really are the Ultimate Detective, aren’t you?”

Saihara doesn’t particularly care to have that argument right about now, actually. “Who were you talking to, Amami-kun?” He shakes his head a little, and winces. Regret. “I recognised her voice, but… mm, I’m a bit disoriented, I suppose.” That’s an understatement, but Saihara is sure Amami can gather as much, from the way he hisses as he lowers his head down onto the bed.

“Yeah, I can’t blame you,” Amami says. Saihara hears the smile in Amami’s voice rather than seeing it. It’s a bit hard to see right now, as a matter of fact. Saihara’s vision is blurry, and he assumes it’s from something other than the dim lighting. “That was Akamatsu-san. She was just checking up on you. I would’ve let her in to see you, but I didn’t want you to be crowded upon waking up.” A frown sneaks its way into Amami’s voice. “Though, she’ll probably be more comforting to you now than I will, won’t she? I can go and grab her for you, if you want.” Saihara hears shifting that he assumes is Amami starting to stand, and flails around wildly with one of his hands until it meets Amami, and fists in the fabric of his shirt. He had meant to grab Amami’s arm, but this will do, for now.

“Ah…” Though, Saihara isn’t entirely sure why he wants Amami to stay so bad, anyway. “Can you… well, I don’t  _ not  _ want to see Akamatsu-san, but, mmm…” For some reason, Saihara would rather Amami be here, right now. “Do you think you could…”

“Stay?” Amami suggests. His voice is gentle. Saihara bites his lip, but nods, and listens until he hears Amami relaxing back into his seat. “Sure, I can do that, Saihara-kun. It’s no problem.” Saihara releases Amami’s shirt, and one of Amami’s hands, large and warm and callused, rests itself on Saihara’s forehead. He can feel the warmth even through the material of the bandages wrapped around his head. “I owe you as much, anyway.”

“Owe me?” Saihara repeats. He squints his eyes until he locates Amami, trying to read his expression. It’s… difficult, not least of all because Amami has… always been a bit difficult to read, Saihara thinks. He must be a good liar. It’s one of the reasons why Saihara distrusted him initially, but… now… “I… think I remember what happened, but could you…”

“I went down to the library at the time limit,” Amami explains. His voice is a bit quiet. “To check out that secret entrance. You and Akamatsu-san thought the mastermind would go there at the end of the time limit, right? That’s what she told me, while you were unconscious.” He waits until Saihara’s nodded to continue. “I had the same thought. That’s what I was waiting for, but when I opened the bookshelf, there was a flash.”

“A flash?” Saihara murmurs. He frowns. That… shouldn’t have happened. “Akamatsu-san and I… set up cameras, but none of them should have flashed…”

“To be honest with you,” Amami’s voice is still gentle, if a touch wry, now. “I think Akamatsu-san had something to do with all that. She seemed a bit guilty when I mentioned it. But she’s been pretty worried about you, so I didn’t want to put her on the spot.” He sighs. Saihara’s frown only deepens at the thought that Akamatsu could have tampered with the plan. Why turn on the flash? Perhaps it was an accident? It must have been, right? But it wouldn’t have been easy to accidentally turn the flash  _ on,  _ would it? “At any rate, when I went over to check it out, a shot put ball fell past my head, and landed at my feet. I suppose it was Shirogane’s decoy.”

Saihara notes the lack of honourific, but decides not to call attention to it, at least for now. “Ah… because she came out to attack you after that?”

“Right,” Amami’s voice is a bit stiff, but he clears his throat, and when he speaks next, his voice is gentle again. “Next thing I knew, you were yelling at me to look out, and by the time I’d turned around, you were in the way, intercepting the hit. I managed to stop Shirogane before she could hit you hard enough for it to be fatal, but…” It takes Saihara a moment to focus in enough to read Amami’s expression, but he’s scowling, Saihara thinks, a deep frown line creasing between his eyebrows. Saihara has… never seen him looking like that, before.

“So Shirogane-san was the mastermind?” Saihara asks. He lifts a hand to his temple, his fingertips brushing over the spot on his head where she got him. The touch stings, and he winces, but he doesn’t pull his hand away. The cold of his fingers is soothing. “Did… did she get caught?”

“Sure did,” Amami’s smiling again, Saihara thinks. “Right after you collapsed, Momota-kun and Chabashira-san and Akamatsu-san came barging in, and Momota-kun didn’t even hesitate to disarm Shirogane. He seemed pretty angry that he was too slow to save you from a hit entirely, but,” Amami sighs, “we do what we can. He wasn’t the only one who felt like that, anyway.”

The statement is vague enough that Amami could be talking about someone else, but Saihara gets the feeling that this isn’t the case. “Amami-kun, I chose to step in front of you,” he points out, his voice a bit weak, but firm. “You aren’t responsible for my actions. Besides, Shirogane-san got caught, right? That’s what matters. The killing game should be over, now.”

“Yeah, that’s what it’s looking like,” Amami agrees, though he’s still frowning. “I don’t think Monokuma and the Kubz even know what to  _ do  _ with themselves, now. But they’ll have to do something. We can’t just be stuck here forever, now that the mastermind is caught.” He shakes his head a little. “It’s all thanks to you, you know, Saihara-kun. The trap you set.”

“And Akamatsu-san,” Saihara points out. “I couldn’t have done it without her.” Attempted or successful meddling aside. Saihara swallows. “And… ah, you must have played a part as well, right? If Shirogane-san was there trying to kill  _ you,  _ and not trying to make more Monokumas… she must have had another trick up her sleeve. So… if not for your part, she wouldn’t have come out.” It sounds logical, Saihara thinks. Admittedly, he’s having a hard time making sense of it, with his head like this, but they’re words that… he thinks he should say.

Amami laughs, though. “I think you can hardly give me credit here, Saihara-kun,” he says. For what he’s saying, his voice is oddly warm. “I owe you my life, you know. You saved me.”

Something about those words makes heat explode in Saihara’s face, and he reaches up for a hat that he isn’t wearing.  _ Ah.  _ Of course his hat would have been taken off to take care of the injury… it must be all bloody, now. Saihara rolls his lips in between his teeth, sucking in a breath. “I… you don’t owe me anything, Amami-kun, I…”

“Even still,” Amami insists. His voice makes Saihara’s chest flutter, slightly, which is an… odd sensation. Not a bad one, though. “If there’s anything that I can do for you, in return… you should let me know, alright? I’m at your beck and call.” A grin sneaks its way into his voice. “The least I can do, really.”

That makes Saihara giggle, for some reason. “Well… I don’t know about all of that. But I do have one question for you, I suppose.”

“Sure,” Amami’s voice is warm. Saihara swallows down the warmth that rises in his own throat. “What’s on your mind?”

“Ah… well,” Saihara fiddles with the bandages over his temple. “I don’t mean to accuse you of lying after you’ve been so kind to me, Amami-kun, but… you did lie, about forgetting your talent, right?” Amami is silent, and Saihara sucks in a breath while he waits for a reply that never comes. “It’s just… it didn’t feel…  _ entirely  _ like a lie, don’t get me wrong, but… you’ve been hiding something about it. And you know things that the rest of us don’t.”

After another long moment of quiet, Amami says, “Sure, I can tell you that, if you want,” as he releases a breath. “Since the killing game is over… and after you saved me… I don’t know how I could really say no.” He chuckles. “But… well, are you sure that you wouldn’t rather rest?”

Frankly, Saihara’s head hurts like a bitch, and the talking makes his head hurt even more, from the strain on his lungs and the presence of noise in the room. He can see better than he could when he first woke up, but barely, and he’d really like to just go back to sleep.

But… he wants to know.

“You’re right, I should rest,” Saihara admits. “But… when I wake up, can you be by my bedside?”

“Me?” Amami sounds incredulous. “Are you sure you want me, and not someone else? We just established that I’ve been lying to you all this time, didn’t I?”

“You were trying to save us, though, weren’t you?” Saihara’s voice is quiet, in part because of the concussion, and in part because of the content of his words. “I think that makes you worth having at my bedside, Amami-kun.” And… “Besides, I… would rather not be alone right now, and I… don’t really want anybody else to see me like this.”

Concussed, disoriented, hatless. Any number of vulnerable things. And as much as being vulnerable in front of Amami is a bit of a pain, too… he’s already seen it. How much worse could it get, really?”

“Please,” Saihara adds, his voice barely more than a whisper.

“...Sure, Saihara-kun,” Amami says, after a moment, his own voice lowered. His fingers stroke through Saihara’s hair again, gentle and lingering, his rings cool against Saihara’s scalp. “I’ll stay as long as you’ll have, me, alright?”

Saihara makes a vague sound of affirmation, relaxing back into the pillows, closing his eyes back up. He can feel sleep creeping up on him already, but he welcomes it this time, leaning slightly into Amami’s touch. “Thank you,” he murmurs.

And just before Saihara passes out, as before, Amami says something, but this time, Saihara hears it in its entirety; “No, Saihara-kun,” Amami’s voice is slightly watery, “thank  _ you.” _

**Author's Note:**

> i procrastinated so hard on this one my dudes... but here we are. the night before. this one's gonna kick my ass i can already tell. :D


End file.
